Digital Piano Review continued: On Location at Best Buy in Fresno CA (6 videos)

This was such a smooth experience. Matthew Wheeler was found playing drums and keyboard in Best Buy's atrium, for want of a better name, and he stopped what he was doing to film me sampling digitals. These were console models: Roland F110, Casio 830, and Yamaha Arius YDP 141. There are six videos, including a…

Practicing on a Digital Piano (Video) PROS and CONS

My Casio PX 110 sits on the second floor of my townhouse because there's no room for it anywhere else. Haddy Haddorff stole the space that Cassy formerly inhabited. In truth, the digital is not on the high priority activity list of instruments here but it has a role in technique-based toning and conditioning In…

The double standard as applied to used pianos and their sale

I'm always surprised by the condition of many private party market used pianos, as if a double standard is operating when comparing a house sale to a piano sale. I will sometimes walk into a home that is on the market that is clean and sparkling while the offered musical instrument is dusty, out of…

Piano Practicing: Re-doing and Refining

Studying piano, playing through the great piano literature, requires revisiting, re-doing and refining our work. This undertaking should not carry a value judgment that what preceded was poor or inadequate. Those adjectives do not belong to the process of learning. After all, we do not fault babies for crawling before walking because we realize it's…

Piano Instruction: Using the wrist to taper phrases

I've always believed that it's not enough to rely on fingers, or finger action alone, to play the piano expressively. For me, enlisting the wrist, and rolling into notes, especially those that are shaped down at the conclusion of phrases are recommended. In the attached video, I compare the progression of shorter notes to a…

How long should a piano student stay with a piece?

As a teacher, I've often pondered this question, concluding that there are varying answers which depend on the advancement and motivation of individual students. Certainly no fixed formula addresses the length of time a pupil needs to fully realize his potential when practicing a given composition. By way of example, I have an adult student,…

The Emotionally Abusive Piano Teacher and Suggested Rehab

Over the years my ears have been pinned back by stories from students who experienced emotionally abusive teachers. One who transferred to my studio from another, described her head having been shoved into the music after striking a wrong note. In biographies of well-known performers, strands of anecdotes about foot-pounding, screaming master instructors remind readers…

The Piano Universe of Discussion Boards, Digital Feedback, and Self-analysis (Video)

I love to scan the Boards at Piano World, UK Forums, Piano Street, Piano Addict, and other stop-off points such as My Music Life Blogspot and Color in my Piano to get a feel for the concerns of piano students at all levels of study. This form of feedback that flows in and out of…

Taking Piano Lessons: Skimming the surface or getting deeply involved?

I often think about a prevailing atmosphere of depersonalization these days fostered by cell phones, text messaging, being on the periphery of things, touching bases, not really getting deeply connected to any one subject. Social networking, video games, compulsive school testing, and a dearth of hands-on learning experiences keep many children at bay, floating from…

Appealing piano repertoire for students: Ballade by Burgmuller (Video) and a Lesson-in-Progress

http://youtu.be/JKFxWVFRK4M A piece that's popular among piano students and often steers them back on course, is Burgmuller's "Ballade." In previous blogs, I highlighted "The Chase," "Harmony of the Angels," and "Tarentelle," from this Op. 100 Collection of 25 Progressive Pieces. Burgmuller's tableau in C minor, ("Ballade") seems to capture the spirit of Halloween in its…